XYplorer crashes - can You make it more crash-proof? - SOLVED

[stoik]

For years now, I am putting up with XYplorer's random crashes - because I appreciate the other immense qualities of this program.

I have tried everything that was suggested to me on this forum, but to no avail. Most prominently, I disabled all shell extensions on my system, instead of context-menu I use XYplorer's "custom file associations" via toolbar button, and in XYplorer itself (in Settings) I have disabled the use of the Windows shell. In recent versions, XYplorer crashes less often than before, but it still continues to crash with the latest version as of today (2024-09-11).

So, from time to time, I check this forum to see if there are any new ideas or developments. As of today, the forum search for "XYplorer crashes" yields 1933 matches (wow !). Obviously, this is a common and persistent problem.

A person that signs in as "cfguy101" said this about his effort to solve the problem : "last time this happened ... I posted specifics, I got a response from some bitchy, unhelpful moderator with a really flippant attitude".
You can find this here : viewtopic.php?p=218404&hilit=XYplorer+crashes#p218404.

At times, I have had a similar experience, although at other times the response was quite polite. But this is beside the point. The point is : maybe it is time for a strategic shift - if possible.

Instead of bitching about the hundreds of shell extensions out there that can crash XYplorer (it is always someone else's fault), maybe it is time to see reality as it is : hundreds of other software developers will continue to make their shell extensions with little regard to the fact that XYplorer is so "sensitive" and easily gets a "nervous breakdown".

Is there any way you can make XYplorer more *resilient* to buggy shell extensions and such ? So that You do not have to respond to 1933 new forum topics with people wining about XYplorer crashes ! You have to accept the fact that XYplorer will never be the only software on a clients laptop/PC.

Maybe this is not possible, I do not know (I am not one of Your programmers), but maybe You can look into this strategic re-direction.

Now, please do not hit me with some "bitchy" response, I am being quite polite and am asking a pretty legitimate question, that - I think - deserves a polite response.

I remain a great fan of XYplorer !

Respectfully Yours,
Stoik

[admin]

Hm. What is a crash? What do you mean when you say crash?

[stoik]

Thanks for Your prompt reply.

By crash I mean the mainstream definition of crash,
as described in my many posts so far at this forum :

e.g. when I want to create a new folder
XYplorer closes suddenly and unexpectedly ...
If I previously made any changes to XYplorer's settings
(e.g. changed some toolbar buttons,
or changed something in XYplorer's Configuration)
these changes are not saved with this "crash"
(unlike with "healthy" closing of XYplorer
with active setting "save config changes on exit").

On very rare occasions, even if I did not
previously make any changes
in XYplorer's configuration,
the "crash" messed some some previous setting,
so I had to manually correct this.

Was I sufficiently explicit ?

Thanks.

[admin]

So it just goes down without any error message? And that's also with the latest version?

(Note that this is different from the experience of cfguy101, who did get an error message, but for unknown reasons stopped collaborating just before I could fix it.)

[stoik]

Yes, and yes.

It just goes down without any error message,
as I described in my previous posts on this topic.

In the past, on just a few rare occasions,
there was some message like "script error 9" or so,
unfortunately I did not capture this,
but that was years ago, since then
there is no error message,
and nothing has changed for years ...

If You wish to see more details,
please look up my previous posts,
that way we both can avoid repeating
that fruitless long cycle.

Thanks !!

[admin]

There is nothing I can do without an error message. The thing is, the error message (error 9) was recently improved, so it would be great if you could catch it! The other guy who gets these crashes (cfguy101) also gets the error message (but has stopped replying).

You seem to imply that XY crashes a lot. Not at all, it's only 2 or 3 out of zillions of users that report this elusive error 9, often when they create a new folder. Of course, I'd love to fix it, but I need the error message!

[stoik]

Thank You very much for Your effort,
and I quite understand Your situation
which seems to be "I don't know where to start".

As far as "error message (error 9)" goes,
I did not have it for years now,
so I do not know if we should blame it on that.
I just mentioned it as the only message
I got with this problem, and it was
both very rare and very long time ago.
So error 9 is not my complaint.
Surely, there must be many other possibilities.

You also wrote :
"You seem to imply that XY crashes a lot.
Not at all, it's only 2 or 3 out of zillions of users
that report this elusive error 9,
often when they create a new folder."

I need to correct the record here :

1. I did not say that my XY crashes a lot,
it crashes randomly maybe
once or twice a day these days,
it used to be more in the past;
I consider this relatively rare,
that is why I did not
switch to another file manager;

2. I am not complaining about error 9
as I noted above.

I do not expect any quick fix here,
since multiple administrators
were unable to help me for years.
Thanks for the effort !

Yes, maybe the "error 9 when creating new folder"
is an issue for 1 in 3 zillion users
but XY crashes generally have (as I said)
1933 matches in this forum's search.

That is why I suggested that at Your next meeting
You perhaps bring this up as a matter of strategic shift
towards more "crash-resilience" - if that is at all possible.
I am not claiming to know, but a bunch if smart people
like You may figure this out.

I do not expect any quick resolution,
but perhaps down the road a better experience.

Thanks a lot for Your time !

[admin]

1933 matches mean nothing. People use the word crash for a lot of things.

Of course, there is another way that would help me fix it: reproducible steps. But you cannot give any. That alone tells me that the environment (Windows, other applications) is crucially involved.

[stoik]

I accept Your point.

Let me see how this looks in the future.

Thanks for Your time anyways.

[admin]

How do you normally create a new folder? And at what exact moment does the crash happen?

Anyway, try v26.40.0006, I have added some more error traps.

[stoik]

WHEN : The crash happens the very millisecond the folder is created.
Mostly I do not even have the time to see the new folder,
but when I restart the XY I can see the new folder.
Besides, my navigation location was not saved,
XY takes me to the address from the start of the last launch.

HOW : it makes NO DIFFERENCE how the new folder was created,
crashes seem to happen with equal frequency -
from toolbar button "New Folder",
Menu -> Edit -> New -> New Folder, or
context menu -> New or New Item.
I will add : most often I use the toolbar button.

[admin]

Did you try v26.40.0006?

[stoik]

I forgot to mention :

Crashes only happen when I create a new folder,
they never happen when I create a new file (e.g. text file).

On rare occasions crashes happen when I switch to another location/address
e.g. activating right half of dual pane, or moving to 1 folder above in the path.

No, I have not tried the new beta that You are suggesting,
I see - better error messaging, clever, I will do it right now.

Thanks.

[stoik]

I am now using version 26.40.0006.

Just had a crash.
There was no error message displayed by XY.

To create the folder, this time I was using a customized toolbar button
with my own xys script that I called "New Folder - Name fr ClipBoard"
basically it creates a new folder named by whatever is in the clipboard
the clipboard contained the text "Registration Key"
and my script is as follows (any stupid mistake there ?) :

focus "L"; // Set focus to the List
wait 50;
new(<clipboard>, "dir");

[admin]

Strange that you get no error message.
Strange that I get no crash.

How often do you have to do it to get a crash?